Wednesday, March 2, 2016

CHENNAI: Digital depository for school and college certificates, announced in the Union Budget, would act as a one-stop shop for storing, retrieving and verifying all educational certificates whenever necessary.

A top scientist with the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) told Express that digital libraries would be set up on a pilot basis, which would be soon expanded into a national library.

Experts believed that the digital depository launched as part of the Centre’s Digital India would eliminate the necessity for physically storing education certificates and be a solution to the increasing fake educational certificate scams across various states.

“DeitY would be providing technical assistance to this initiative to be primarily taken by the Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD)”, the scientist working in the e-governance group of DeitY told Express.

The scientist added, “At present we are planning to set up a digital library on a pilot basis, which we had earlier developed for research purpose and this would be expanded later.

The MHRD had begun collecting necessary data and at subsequent meetings with the officials they would decide the location for the pilot scheme. “This would save a lot of time, particularly when someone lost their certificates and tried to get a duplicate copy from the authorities”, said M Saravanan, an IT employee. Saravanan had lost all his original certificates on his way to Chennai to attend an interview and was made to run from pillar to post at the TN Directorate of Government Examinations Headquarters, Chennai.

Sources from the School Education department said that this might be linked with the Digital Locker facility introduced earlier to ensure safe online storage and easy access of documents anytime.

“But, this portable locker linked the students’ certificates with their respective personal Aadhaar card identity numbers and despite special camps, several students were left out and yet to receive their cards,” sources added.

PUNE: The ministry of external affairs has announced two major changes that will fast-track the process for first-time passport applicants and make it more convenient to secure an appointment at the local passport seva kendra.

Citizens will be granted a fresh passport under the normal category in a week if their applications are accompanied by three documents - copies of Aadhaar card, electoral photo identity card (EPIC) and PAN card - besides an affidavit in the format of Annexure-I (declaration of citizenship, family details and no criminal record).

Until now, the process would take a month, with the police verification eating up a lot of time.

Police verification of such applications will be conducted after the passport is issued. There will be no extra charge for the service, a statement issued by the ministry said. The process is subject to online validation of the Aadhaar number while processing and an approval from the granting officer.

In addition, EPIC and PAN cards may also be validated, if required, through respective databases in real time, before the application is approved. Besides, passports may also be impounded and revoked later, in case of adverse police reports.

The idea of the upgrade is to liberalise the process without compromising on security, explained Anil Kumar Sobti, director of the passport division in the ministry. "There are plenty of inbuilt safeguards in our system which can instantly spot fake identities and forgeries. Most importantly, our system is linked to the Aadhaar database which helps conduct real-time verification of the applicant while s/he is still at the passport seva kendra," he said.

"We are trying to integrate EPIC and PAN cards as well. Additionally, the granting officer interviewing the applicant can use his discretion to extend or withhold the facility. Besides, the option of impounding or revoking the passport post issuance is always available and we have exercised it several times in 2015," Sobti said.

A year after the
enactment of the landmark Maharashtra Right to Public Services Act, higher and
technical education secretary Sanjay Chahande on Saturday promulgated an order
to provide retotaling of marks, duplicate marksheet, duplicate degree,
verification of documents and migration eligibility certificate within stipulated
period.

“We have issued
an order to provide basic services linked with the higher and technical
education department. If the competent authority fails to provide the documents
within the stipulated period, stringent action will be taken against himher as
per the provisions of the act. Besides disciplinary action, the law provides for
fine for erring officials,“ a senior bureaucrat told TOI.

Giving the
specifics, the bureaucrat said that now it bureaucrat said that now it will be
mandatory for the competent authority to complete retotaling of marks within 15
days; provide duplicate marksheet and duplicate degree within 15 days; and
migrationeligibility certificate and document verification within 30 days. For
the examinations conducted by the directorate of technical education, score card
of common entrance test will be issued in 30 days, duplicate marksheet within 15
days and for the Maharashtra State Board of Technical Examinations, it has been
mandatory to provide migration eligibility certificate within
21 days.

The bureaucrat
said the order promulgated by the higher and technical education, which controls
all the universities in the state, will go a long way in ending red tape and
harassment of students. “In the absence of stipulated time, students seeking
duplicate documents, verification of documents and migration or eligibility
certificate faced a difficult time. The students were at the mercy of the clerks
in universities. This are also the main areas where students face harassment and
corruption at educational institutions,“ the bureaucrat said.

We launched Voice typing in Docs to help you capture ideas, compose a
letter, or even write the next great novel—all without touching your keyboard.
Starting today, you can also edit and format your documents with your
voice.

To get started, select "Voice typing" in the "Tools" menu when
you’re using Docs in Chrome. Say what comes to mind—then start editing and
formatting with commands like “copy,” “insert table,” and
“highlight.”

Check out the full list of commands in our Help
Center or simply say “Voice commands help” when you’re voice
typing.It’s a quick and easy way to
get ideas out of your head, and into a doc. So try out Voice typing (and editing
and formatting) today!